Sunday, January 5, 2014

Say it isn't so...

Say it isn't so! Do I really need to go back to school tomorrow? As I relish in only a couple more hours left of winter break, and shed a few tears, I have finished prepping for the journey back into the classroom. Thankfully we have two days of professional development and no kiddos until Wednesday so I can take down all my leftover Christmas décor and print, laminate, and assemble all of my new goodies for the kiddos.
I racked my brain over the last week as to how to lead my Walk to Read group as successfully as possible. As I have mentioned before I have all of the second grade intensive kiddos in my literacy block and have a lot of growth to help them make by the end of the year. I do incorporate Daily 5 into this 90 minute intervention block, but my kiddos do not get to choose what they would like to complete (except on Friday's when I progress monitor). I decided to add additional fluency and comprehension practice into Daily 5 that my kiddos will be introduced to this week when they return. When my kiddos Read to Self they will be using my new comprehension centers. Here is a glimpse of what these will look like.

I have taken six accordion files, from the dollar spot at Target, to hold and organize everything together. Each center holds a book (all six of my centers are winter themed right now), a comprehension activity or interactive journaling page, and comprehension mini-posters. My goal is for my intensive kiddos to take the comprehension strategies we have been working on in guided reading and small group independently. I have placed a mixture of fiction and nonfiction books in each center. I also plan to make multiple copies of the activities and place in a plastic page protector that way I do not need to replenish these centers everyday. We will spend this week modeling and practicing the expectations of the centers.

Here is a look at the inside of the accordion file. I have tabs labeled for the "book", "activity" , "notebook" (for the interactive journaling page), and "cards" (comprehension mini-posters). Once I have everything labeled, copied, and placed in its spot I will upload more pictures. You can get a copy of everything that I am using in these comprehension centers, except the books, by clicking on the image below.

My kiddos will also be using their Read to Someone rotation to practice their fluency. They do spend two days a week doing fluency drills in one of their small groups, but this is led by a teacher. I want my kiddos to begin to take responsibility for their learning and complete these drills on their own. So I have created an interactive way for my kiddos to do this with my Cookie Fluency Phrases. I have used the first 100 Fry words and created small phrases and sentences for my kiddos to read. My kiddos can play games like Memory, Spin-a-Cookie, Cookie Racing and track their progress in a fluency phrase notebook. I plan on having each of these games in a manila folder and the practice pages in three binders. Once I take pictures of the complete set-up I will upload them. You can read a little more and take a look at the preview by clicking on the images below.

Anyone else getting excited for the Olympics? I am counting down the days for the Opening Ceremony. My excitement could stem from my childhood when I thought I was going to be the next great ice skater, but have only been on the ice once in my lifetime! I have some exciting activities I am working on for my classroom kiddos. I did finish the Math & Literacy centers we will be using during the two weeks of the games. You can get a copy for yourself by clicking on the images below.